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Earlier today I was reading an article about Ezra Miller which made it clear that calling someone "they" can be grammatically and referentially confusing in some contexts, inasmuch as the person referred to is singular rather than plural, grammatically speaking.
(No, Walt Whitman, no, just no. Please stay out of this.)
So, what could we propose as an alternative for American English? Do the people of the Anglophonic Dominion have any suggestions?
@kevin-eleven saidThis is one of those things that I think will never get done because those who want it done can't agree on how to get it done. If we were to do it like German does it, however, the pronoun you're looking for would be..."it."
Earlier today I was reading an article about Ezra Miller which made it clear that calling someone "they" can be grammatically and referentially confusing in some contexts, inasmuch as the person referred to is singular rather than plural, grammatically speaking.
(No, Walt Whitman, no, just no. Please stay out of this.)
So, what could we propose as an alternative for American English? Do the people of the Anglophonic Dominion have any suggestions?
@kevin-eleven said"Fu," third person gender-irrelevant singular pronoun. And, yes, 'their' is grammatically wrong.
Earlier today I was reading an article about Ezra Miller which made it clear that calling someone "they" can be grammatically and referentially confusing in some contexts, inasmuch as the person referred to is singular rather than plural, grammatically speaking.
(No, Walt Whitman, no, just no. Please stay out of this.)
So, what could we propose as an alternative for American English? Do the people of the Anglophonic Dominion have any suggestions?
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because they hear a different drummer; let them step to the music they hear, however measured or far away" gives exactly the opposite meaning to Thoreau's. THEY do not hear the different drummer; THEY all hear the SAME drummer.
- Joined
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@moonbus saidHm. I thought it might be Ta or Tx.
"Fu," third person gender-irrelevant singular pronoun. And, yes, 'their' is grammatically wrong.
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because they hear a different drummer; let them step to the music they hear, however measured or far away" gives exactly the opposite meaning to Thoreau's. THEY do not hear the different drummer; THEY all hear the SAME drummer.
I find "they" to be confusing, it's been exclusively plural since before all of us were born and I don't think we need to exhume the singular version.
Gender, as distinct from the actual physical/genetic stuff, is a language construct. What useful purpose do multiple genders serve? Ask anyone who tries to study almost any language. Do we need to know if a table is la or le, das or der or dem?
A sensibly designed language would allow differences to be expressed in nouns, but requiring even pronouns to have genders is just pointless. Animals get "it", plants get "it", practically all other things get "it". Why can't we humans have "it" as well?
I'm sure someone can come up with an opposing argument, but the "humans as an exclusive special group" one doesn't cut it.
Speaking of Fruit Loops:
Demi Lovato Returns to ‘She/Her’ Pronouns, in Addition to ‘They/Them’
Demi Lovato has provided some context as to why she’s decided to update her pronouns to now include she/her in addition to they/them.
In an interview that premiered Aug. 1 on the “Spout Podcast,” Lovato said, “I’ve actually adopted the pronouns of she/her again” and went on to explain that the decision behind the change was because “I’m such a fluid person that I don’t really … I felt like, especially last year, my energy was balanced in my masculine and feminine energy, so that when I was faced with the choice of walking into a bathroom and it said ‘women’ and ‘men,’ I didn’t feel like there was a bathroom for me because I didn’t feel necessarily like a woman. I didn’t feel like a man. I just felt like a human.”
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Ok, y'all got that, right? Remember, when Demi is having a Fluid day, you must genderize her properly else, go to prison!!
https://variety.com/2022/music/news/demi-lovato-she-her-pronouns-they-them-1235331975/
@shavixmir saidTrannies won't accept that.
Just make a pronoun a reference to the biological sex, rather than the mental construct of gender.
@athousandyoung saidPerhaps because people call them trannies?
Trannies won't accept that.
Anyhoo. The next best option is to call everyone “she”.
With only people who identify as “male” being called “he”.
So, she becomes the generic term for everyone who’s not a he.
@shavixmir saidNo, because they insist everyone else make a point of calling them by their preferred trans identity. I see "T-girls" advertising as prostitutes or looking for men on Tinder all the time - the T stands for Trans.
Perhaps because people call them trannies?
Anyhoo. The next best option is to call everyone “she”.
With only people who identify as “male” being called “he”.
So, she becomes the generic term for everyone who’s not a he.
You call a male to female transsexual - even a pre-op one! - "he" and she'll be all up in your face screeching about pronouns. Nothing to do with the word "tranny".
It's kind of like homos demanding the government and society recognize their 'marriages' and will not tolerate it being called 'civil partnership'. It has nothing to do with me calling them homos and it has nothing to do with what legal benefits they get from it. It's about them demanding everyone else publicly acknowledge them in the way they want to be acknowledged.
(Why we allow a tiny percentage of weirdos to make demands and why we care about what they will tolerate is beyond me)